Thursday, September 19, 2013

Imported Garbage - From New York Times

This blog
has always been dedicated to Indian news media as it was meant to be. However,
considering multiple elections are looming and business abroad is not so great
one can expect a lot of imported scumbags to fry their onions in the Indian
heat. The American media is the inspiration behind the terribly corrupt and
untrustworthy media in India. They too have fake reports, fake awards and even
bogus reports to encourage war. Even the Pulitzer Prize can be hoodwinked. Don’t
believe me? Read the story of Janet
Cooke in “Barkha – The Queen of Telly Trolls”. The common
misconception in India is that the longest running media competition is KBC.
Actually no! KBC had many breaks. The longest running media completion is “Abuse Narendra Modi and win a prize”.
Unfortunately, there is hardly any media crook in India who hasn’t already won
that prize so now there are imported contestants. Any Tom, Dick and Harris
would do! So ‘Enter Gardiner Harris’
of the New York Times (NYT).

This is what
Harris’ profile on Twitter says (pic on the left). Usually when you have a
grand title like “South Asia”
correspondent you can assume there will be a lot of stringers and side-kicks
assisting the person. To put it politely, these people usually peddle “second-hand
stuff”. You know, like selling used cars. If you ever met a used-car salesman
he will make you believe it’s even better than a virgin car. But the Twitter
profile doesn’t say much else, so a more honest introduction to Harris is mandatory. Here’s how one
introduced him (edited excerpts):

“The Inconstant Gardiner: The
New York Times’ Fervent Disconnect Between Drug and Vaccine Reporting: The film “The
Constant Gardener”—starring Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz… from the book by
John le Carré—is the story of sacrifice and moral constancy against the
corruption of fictional corporate giant KVH, maker of pharmaceuticals and
pesticides. It’s a beautiful film in many ways, and terrifying; a cross between
reality check and forecast…..Isn’t
tireless repetition of “emotional words” a technique of advertising and
political propaganda? Or is Harris too bored with the issue to come up with
fresher adjectives?I suppose that could
explain the—cough— inconstant reporting. Inconstant: adjective; likely to
change frequently without apparent or cogent reason— in•con•stant•ly adverb … Gardiner
Harris—who just came out with his first novel involving a possible conspiracy
in coalmining—likes to chastise vaccine
injury claimants for being “misled by conspiracy theories”.It’s funny if you think about it. Harris’s
conceit is that he himself would be in on such a conspiracy if it existed— when
in reality, Harris doesn’t make decisions about what gets printed in the Times
any more than a drug rep decides what to sell”.

Isn’t
tireless repetition of “emotional words” a technique of advertising and
political propaganda? Asks the article about Harris. Oh yes, terms like “divisive”
“controversial” “fascist” “chauvinist” “polariser” are all propaganda words
that fit very much with Harris’ style as it does with most of his Indian counterparts.
I recommend you read the full introduction of Harris that I’ve linked so that
there is no selective interpretation. What I’ve quoted is actually the nicer
part. So on what basis he wrote this crap called “Campaign for Prime Minister in India Gets Off to Violent Start”
about NaMo can only be described as mindless propaganda and nothing more. It’s
his “first time” I suppose, so we
will throw back just a couple of his moroneries back at him. Harris clearly tries to imply that the
nomination of Modi as BJP’s PM candidate sparked off the Muzzafarnagar riots.
Sounds a lot like our very own Diggy, doesn’t he? Here’s what he starts with:

“India’s most important election in a generation began in
earnest this month the same way consequential elections nearly always start
here — with a proclamation and a deadly riot. In New Delhi, the Bharatiya
Janata Party announced last week that it had chosen Narendra Modi, one of the
most divisive politicians in India’s history, as its candidate for prime
minister in next spring’s national elections. Mr. Modi, the chief minister of
the western state of Gujarat, is an unapologetic Hindu chauvinist who has been
accused of mass murder”.

So the “proclamation”
is connected to a deadly riot – the Muzzafarnagar one. Of course, Harris doesn’t
forget to state Modi has been “accused of mass murder”. Now who has accused
Modi of this? Not a court and not even an FIR. It is scumbags like Harris in
the Indian media who have done this; most prominently Vir Sanghvi and Rajdeep
Sardesai. Bravo, second-hand crap is passed off as gospel. Here’s another
one from Harris:

Okay, in the
above para he links to an article about the Muzzafarnagar riots. This is from
his own NYT barn. That linked article is “Fear and loathing in North India’s sugarcane town”. Nice! Very nice! Harris also states the riots
were due to a “fake video” by a
legislator from Modi’s party. See? This guy is a fast learner. Bad things it’s
Modi’s Gujarat, Modi’s aide, Modi’s right-hand man. Good things? It’s Gujarat
or Gujarat govt. I guess this guy must have attended classes at NDTV and CNN-IBN. Anyway, here’s what the article he linked says:

Oh, the fake
video theory has been busted. But trust used-car salesmen to tell you how
virgin the car is. So the riots, which actually started in August, escalated on
September 7 as the NYT reportsays. Modi was nominated PM candidate on Friday the 13th. Yet, like
the usual Indian liars in our own media Harris makes a fake connection. I hope
the UPA awards him a Padma Shri before they exit. Then Harris proceeds to write
the tripe that has been peddled over and over again in India. He’s just about
some 10 years late, that’s all. Oh and then he quotes the great Sushil Kumar
Shinde too:

“Sushil Kumar Shinde, India’s minister of Home Affairs, said
that there had already been 451 cases of sectarian violence this year,
surpassing last year’s total of 410. He warned that violence was likely to
intensify as elections approached”.

451 cases of sectarian violence this year? What? Did you
hear any of that? Did you see of any of
that being reported by NDTV, CNN-IBN, TOI Group, Headlines Today or ABPNews
all of whom are clones of NYT and American media? Oops! He reveals something
else too. There were 410 last year.
Did you hear most of that either? Thanks to Harris, at least he exposes the
criminal cover-up artists in Indian media. But the Inconstant Gardiner misses
something. None of the 451 or 410
happened in Gujarat or under Modi’s watch. So he will learn slowly those aren’t
sectarian violence. The only communal clash ever in India was Gujarat 2002.

Harris also
grandly states Modi rarely speaks to Western media. He is wrong. Modi rarely
speaks to any media because he knows how they are criminally ranged against
him. He is smart and throws words in his speeches and lets them grovel for
crumbs. But even here “second-hand” news peddler Harris is inaccurate. Modi
gave an interview to Reuters just some weeks ago. Obviously, Harris is not a lover of Puppies or he
would have heard of that. No?

But like I
said those “South Asia” type specialists are usually assisted by local sidekicks.
In this case there is one Hari Kumar from Ahmedabad and Nida Najar from
Muzzafarnagar. In a tribute to John Lennon this is what Elton John wrote about
the gardener he was:

What happened here

As the New York sunset disappeared

I found an empty garden among the flagstones there

Who lived here

He must have been a gardener that cared a lot

Who weeded out the tears and grew a good crop

And now it all looks strange

It's funnyhow one insect can damage so
much grain.

It’s true; one insect can also damage the NYT as
they know so well. “Reporter Judith Miller retired after criticisms that her reporting of the lead-up to
the Iraq War was factually inaccurate and overly favorable to the Bush
administration's position, for which The New York Times later apologized. One
of Miller's prime sources was Ahmed Chalabi, an Iraqi expatriate who returned
to Iraq after the U.S. invasion and held a number of governmental positions
culminating in acting oil minister and deputy prime minister from May 2005
until May 2006”…. “In May 2003, Times reporter Jayson Blair was forced to resign from the newspaper after
he was caught plagiarizing and fabricating elements of his stories. Some
critics contended that Blair's race was a major factor in his hiring and in The
New York Times' initial reluctance to fire him”. The NYT has won a lot of
awards and also has the experience of weeds. One hopes they don’t let an insect
damage the good crop.

35 comments
:

There are a quite a few number of people like this writing to Wallstreet Journal, Washington post etc. Just today, I read one by Sadanad Dhume on Wallstreet Journal. It wasn't so pungent, but all the same, he tried his best to stick Modi to the stereotype of NDTV & IBNLive. These people need to be slapped hard to make them aware of the ground reality in India.

Use fancy words like fascist that no one understands. Modi = Fascist = Hitler = Bad guy not just for India, but for the whole world. How convenient!

Lutyens Delhi - A typical conversation in Lutyens Delhi between two snobs would go like this:

Snob 1: Modi is a fascist.Snob 2: And why pray, is that?Snob 1: The guy does not talk about lifting people out of poverty over fine whisky. Worse, he does something about it.Snob 2: Surely a fascist.Snob 1: He is robbing us of topics for our fine dining conversations. People need to be poor, uneducated, uninformed and divided for us to talk about it. And come out with ideas to experiment on them. Even doctors need cadavers for experimenting. Life me jab ho aaraam, toh ideas aate hain. And this sod is robbing us of this divine right to ideate. After all, we went to Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard so that we can put forth our ideas about poverty alleviation to the world. For all you know, one of us might even win a Nobel. This guy is denying us the right to win the Nobel.Snob 2: Definitely a fascist. I need to tell my MSM friends about this. Over fine whisky, of course. BTW, did you get that Macallan 1926 I asked you to from your last trip to the Caribbean? And can I borrow your private jet next weekend? Discussing poverty can be so taxing. Need to go to Macau to relax.

Ravinar,It would be naive to think that there's zero incidence of communal violence in Gujarat. Here's a link showing the number of communal violences in India from 2005-2013. It was provided by Home ministry to Loksabha.

There are many incidents across India that are minor fracas that can also be described as "sectarian violence". Group clashes also get listed under this. This would be the standard crime classification in a Police station record. However, if you observe the stats quoted by GH in his NYT article he is clearly talking about MAJOR flare-ups as he quotes Shinde's figures. Otherwise, the number would have tallied with those reflected in the report you quote. It does not.

People here in the U.S. have seen thru the lies and deception of once considered premier news organizations such as NYT, TIME, WSJ Etc. especially in the aftermath of Iraq war. Their hold on the American Psyche is lost since YouTube, Twitter and Facebook have made availability of authentic news almost as it happens just like in India or anywhere in the world.

Secular Indians grovel at sight of white skin! Actually landing a firangi woman as a wife is a great ego builder! Even if she had been only a waitress in some non discrepit bar in Olde England! This is enough to make the socialite crowd in Lutyens Delhi to hover near your table to strike a conversation at a party!

Secular Indians grovel at sight of white skin! Actually landing a firangi woman as a wife is a great ego builder! Even if she had been only a waitress in some non discrepit bar in Olde England! This is enough to make the socialite crowd in Lutyens Delhi to hover near your table to strike a conversation at a party!

Ravinar there is one more article by Gardiner Harris dated Sept 13 titled http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/14/world/asia/polarizing-nationalist-to-lead-opposition-in-indian-elections.html where he repeats the lies of 'when more than 1,000 people', 'babies impaled' and 'women thrown alive onto burning pyres.'

USA does not love puppy but loves puppets. they tried their best in middle east, africa, latin america and their puppets are still ruling in some places( slowly USA is loosing its grip over most of the nations they used to rule through their puppets and puppet governments). they want people like hamid karzai(recently caught in a meeting with CIA agents). and that is why they do not want NaMo. their favourites are Maino, Pappu, Tiwari, Sibal, Chidu...almost all of the lot. in south-east asia their stronghold is India. if NaMo comes they will lose it. just go through our "economists(!!!)". Manmohan singh, Montek singh, Kaushik Basu, Pranab Sen, Raghuram Rajan -...all are imported from USA with background of 'world bank','IMF'. and result of those "economists'(!!!)" experiments is in front of every Indian. actually those "economists(!!!)" were not imported,rather, they were sent on a mission. mission to destroy our economy. i mentioned earlier, that if you you can not strengthen yourself try to weak your opponent. US economy is now in ICU. and their only hope is to destroy large economy like India and then they will dictate their terms. if proper investigation is done, i am sure you will find US hand behind 2002. they realised that if anyone can challenge their puppets it is NaMo, and they realised it long before Indians. now NaMo will come if 'majority' Indians realise why USA does not want NaMo. people should be careful of one thing that there will be more "chiranjeevi' and 'prajarajyam' or recent 'AAP' like things will happen. just to divide anti congress vote. i can only hope 'majority' people of India realise this old trick.

These guys come from a long list of 'journalists' and 'India correspondents' best exemplified by Barbara Crosette, who had the cheek to claim that she gave India the 'tough love' it deserved. She is the Wendy Doniger of 'India correspondents'. This is guy is a continuation of the same line.

Hi Ravi, Two days ago the Mail Today reported that the Indian Government is going to allow 100% foreign investment in print media on a case-by-case basis. You know what is meant by case-by-case basis. The NYT with its India Ink has set its eye on Indian media market long ago. They know, to enter the Indian market, they have to please Mademoiselle Sanya, who hates Hindus. That is why it has stepped up its Hindu-baiting. So, please be understanding, friend...

While watching the news (passing comment of an subject expert), came to know that Congress govt i.e. MMS & Montek Ahluwalia, both sardars have signed an agreement on giving extreme concessions on flurocarbons during the recently held G20 summit. Sardar community is known for their courageous deeds and serving the country. Here these two Khangress govt sardars are shameful people, who sold country. Media also did NOT report anything on this subject. Now we all know why MMS is respected in G20 for he is authorized agent to sell "mother india" and everything at a commission

Awesome response. As someone said, I was furious reading that non-sense NYT article, and there is no way to comment there. I think we should start propagating this response to those guys, a constant rebuttal. They all have twitter handle, sometimes emails. We should start posting these URLs there. I did on twitter for NYT editorial board.

Good Ravi that you brought to the notice of True Indians. I happened to come across thearticle in NYT. Did not know about this ratbag Harris till I read your blog. Did not read the article assuming it was written by wretched Aakkhhhtthhhooo Misra who writes in FP. Who knows sod Harris is moonlighting by writing under other names, like Misra, Parveen Swamy,Lakshmi Choudhary.

Wow! This is a new low in Journalism. It took a little while to decode the latest mechanism of Modi baiting but here it is:Step 1 - Make a major Indian newspaper write a seemingly unbelievable article that makes even Faking News' article look credibleStep 2 - Make it a major headline so that it is shared all over social media and makes the congress leaders you-know-what in their pantsStep 3 - Ask the loudest mouthed spokespersons of Congress what they feel about you-know-what ing in their pants. Get absurd statements from themStep 4 - Publicize their statements and give Modi a new name Step 5 - Make every news channel pick up the issue, dissect it for over 4 evenings by loud discussions, so loud that when a BJP spokesperson goes on record to say that the original article was written without credible sources and the claim was never made by Modi or BJP, she is not heardStep 6 - After making it a huge national issue, debunk the original article by making other journalists write in the same newspaperStep 7 - Make the new article a major headline and continue with step 3During all this mayhem, the man goes on with his work epitomizing the Elephant which walked the streets while the dogs barked at it.

Happened to be out with the kid at night yesterday and got sandwiched between arrays of trucks filled with drunk ganesha worshippers, dancing to 'lungi dance', 'havan karenge' and none other than 'yo yo honey singh'. The kid went into a screaming fit late at night while in his sleep and was inconsolable. We had to wipe his face with water to make him awake, take him to every room in the house so that he is assured that he is safe inside the house and not on a big traffic jam with violent people in trucks. Introduction to hindutva flavoured mass madness for a 11 month old. Hope all the drowned ganeshas had a good night's sleep.

I am sure these dumb foreign journalists, just copy the write-ups provided by their anonymous local contacts (no surprise if in the absence of any checks these contacts become prone to corruption).Its very rare to find Mark Tully kind of journalists anymore.

Anyway, who cares, they used to say similar things about Vajpayee-Advani but still the BJP came to power.

Dear Hindu brothers and sisters any new media when don't allow comments on news that paper have hidden agenda . So please note New york times failed and time to act. Read but don't buy or subscribe a paper who don't allow the comments.

I really like ur articles.after reading this article I watched "the constant gardener" to understand the point that u were making.I recommended this page to my friends and and added that the way we science students explain everything with reasoning,this blog explains the news and media stands on issues

If riots happen in Gujrat then Modi is reposnible coz he is the CM.But if riots happen in Muzaffarnagar in UP then instead of CM Akilesh, again Modi is reponsible. Very funny!!Muzaffarnagar is in UP or Gujrat?

A small observation: In the Introduction para, there is a line "The longest running media completion...". I suppose it must be competition. That besides, once again, a brilliant article, and I am glad to know that one is not alone in the fight to expose the tyranny of MSM. I first read this Gardiner guy on Deccan Herald, a newspaper in Karnataka that is forever touching new lows, and I realized that yet another daily now needs to import slander in order to please its bosses.

Hi Ravi.... gr8 work man... 1. To put it politely, these people usually peddle “second-hand stuff”. You know, like selling used cars. If you ever met a used-car salesman he will make you believe it’s even better than a virgin car....2. The only communal clash ever in India was Gujarat 2002.nothing more to say... keep exposing these second hand car dealers... cheers

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